November is National Novel Writing Month

[Ishmael]

Yes, boys and girls, November IS National Novel Writing Month. In honor of the occaision, I've joined the NANOWRIMO website at:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. So I am using this opportunity to get off my dead ass and finish Tales of the Inadvertent Pacifist by Dec. 1. The story will cover from my Dad's childhood in 1930's San Francisco, through the war years, ending when he meets and marries my Mom in 1948. If there is any interest, I'll post further excerpts here or the whole damn thing if you're interested. If not, it'll also be posted at the above site, my award-winning writing/critique group at:

http://groups.msn.com/UniversalWritersGroup

or on my myspace blog you can reach from the link in my sig below. Wish me luck everybody. I'm Ishmael1 at Nanowrimo

[Camaero]

Being a wanna-be writer myself, this looks interesting! I will certainly check your story out.

[Chock]

Not wishing to be picky, but if you write about your father's life from 1930 up until he gets married, that would be a biography, not a novel.

50,000 words in 30 days divides to 1666.666 word per day, so perhaps a satanic-themed novel might be better choice! On a more serious note, while that isn't actually a lot of words per day (I used to have to write far more than that a day when I was a hack for a newspaper, that figure being roughly equivalent to how many words there were on a page of the newspaper with maybe one picture), it nevertheless doesn't leave a lot of time for planning the structure and proofing it plus re-writing bits you don't like, which is of course what really takes up the time, rather than the initial churning it out. So I hope this is one you've had in your head for a while, otherwise, it might be a tall order to write something of that length which reads well.

Best of luck with it.

Chock

[Skybird]

Hehe, 15 years ago I "published" an extensive ST novel in the european fandom, for the 25 years anniversary of ST, title translated into "Bloodshadow", it was a Romulan-based masterpiece of 600 pages, timeframe set between ST-V and ST-VI. . It was no commecial enterprise, and copies were sold for the price of the copying alone, not more. On festivals, I was told, it popped up time and again for a couple of years, and found some hundred (hopefully happy) "customers".

Well, what you write when you are in your early twenties :p

At school I wrote a 200 pages novel for the movie Blade Runner - well, what a surprise! My first novel had 50 pages, and was a script of star Wars, typed while I still was visiting fourth class, I think, elementary school. during late school I wrote a 200 pages non-fictinal book about some social, political, environmental and cultural things. I received some special appreciation from teachers for it, and it was used for one semestre in a project class.

All this was fun at the time when I did it, but I would not take it serious, and do not hand it around anylonger, of course. there were many other short stories, and a colelction of poems and Haikus. Beside a small collection of poems, the only thing I am really proud of, and which really was coming from my heart, is a brief - well, in german we call it "Novelle", that is something like a brief, short novel, entitled "Picnic in Avalone". It was about a young women after WWI, leaving London and finding some rest after marriage troubles, in a Godforsaken place where the borders between reality and fantasy transcended and her finding a new solution to her life when spending one afternoon on a mysterious surreal island where he experiences some events offside the usual flow of time. It is also a hommage to Ray Bradbury, to several of his stories I make some clear references.

Hundreds of pages written - only to finally end with these 90 pages of Avalaone!! I once started to write a sequel to it, well, kind of, but that was years later and I foudn that I had become rusty, and it did not went in the most elegant way. Three drafts existed, entitled "Return to Gramarye", but I finally gave it up. My imagination is unfortunatly lightyears ahead of my abilities as an author.

[Ishmael]

Camaero, I sent you the form letter for UWG and admitted you since I know you already.

Chock, you are technically correct but Nanowrimo allows for biographies. Since I'm using first-person narrative, it'll actually read more like a memoir.

Skybird, don't edit yourself or put down your writing skills. I would venture to say you are charming, witty and intelligent in two languages. I, by contrast, can only get my face slapped in seventeen different languages. With the breadth of your knowledge and experience, I would think you have the makings of a damn fine writer. Further review of your many posts here only buttresses that opinion.

[Skybird]

Thanks for the compliments, Ishmael, but like all humans, I changed over time. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. My writing skills are of the latter, like my chess and fighting as well. Too long periods of not practicing are poison for any skill, no matter what kind of skill is referred to, and that is not different with writing. changed interests, duties, views and timetables also play a role, I guess.

And my postings here in GT- I guess a majority here would rate them as controversial, at best. :p If it would be different and I would not hit some nerves at times, I would conclude that I did not get it right. Might be different with the tank and flightsim forum, of course.

I'll keep an eye on your production.

[Camaero]

Thanks Ishmael!

I bet your writings are damn good Skybird. It is always hard to judge your own work though, so don't let that skew your opinion.

[Chock]

Too long periods of not practicing are poison for any skill, no matter what kind of skill is referred to, and that is not different with writing.

I can certainly vouch for that, I spent a long time not doing any writing after having left working for a newspaper, and then when I went back to freelancing I was rusty as hell. These days I don't do that much freelance writing, but I guard against the skill getting rusty by writing product reviews for Avsim, just to keep the writing wheels turning when I'm not doing any other writing work. It's amazing how quick the skill drops off, but the good news is that it does come back upon re-acquaintance.

Chock

[Hakahura]

Flame prevention bump

[ExFishermanBob]

For those choosing to write, might I suggest LyX, rather than Word or Libre / OpenOffice.


https://www.lyx.org/


Not only do you just type, but it has templates for books and produces beautiful output.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by JaneSmith

Last year I tried what is NaNoWriMo. It's really funny but difficult. During November you must write all the time. My story was about a social architecture in Africa.

Reported as spam.

[Onkel Neal]

Haha, another spambot necro ? Seriously, these spambots have no manners.

[vienna]

"It was a dark and stormy night..."...














<O>

[STEED]

Originally Posted by vienna

"It was a dark and stormy night..."...


<O>

And on that note I went to bed.


The End

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